


Human After All

by ladymac111



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 2018 Winter Olympics, Alternate Universe - Sports, F/M, Gen, Ice Skating, Light Angst, Not RPF, Sports injuries, Transcript Format, the real people are the narrators of the characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-19 16:56:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13708704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladymac111/pseuds/ladymac111
Summary: Johnny:  Taking the ice next, we have Team USA's Katie and Matt Holt in their second Olympics.  In Sochi they didn't place high enough on the first day to make it to the free skate, but after finishing fourth at World's last year they just might surprise us.Tara:  I'm certainly hoping to be surprised!  They've packed a lot of points into their short program, and when Andrea talked to them earlier they looked excited and said they felt good, so I'm hoping the fact that they're veterans means those Olympic nerves won't get to them too badly.Johnny: Me too, me too.  I'm really hoping we get to see their free skate tomorrow.





	1. Pairs Short Program

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Katie and Matt's short program music is [Human After All by Daft Punk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXYeARRyDWk)

_Wednesday, February 14th  
_ _Pairs Short Program_

 

 **Tara Lipinski:** I’m not trying to be dramatic, but that was probably the best skate I’ve ever seen from the Holts.

 **Johnny Weir:** They were just so charismatic, I couldn’t take my eyes off them.  I love it when skaters can do that to you, it’s such a delightful experience.

 **Tara:** Gosh, I know, and the Holts usually deliver on that front but today was extra special.

 **Johnny:** It really was.  Must be that Olympics magic.

 **Tara:** It was very nearly technically perfect too.  I actually thought that was kind of a fun juxtaposition, especially with the music.

 **Johnny:** _[laughs]_ Oh, yes, totally!  Robots singing “human after all.”

 **Tara:**  Matt and Katie really made you wonder, though, didn’t they?  There are a couple of things the technical panel is reviewing, but there weren’t a lot of yellow marks.  The Holts are human, but very very well practiced ones.

 **Johnny:**  Katie had that one hand down on the side-by-side triple salchow but that doesn’t count as a fall, so they won’t get a full point deduction for that, just a slight downgrade. Overall a very clean skate.

 **Tara:** I'm always so impressed by how well synchronized they are, especially in their artistry.  They both always perform the same emotions with the same intensity, which is something that a lot of pairs struggle with. Must come with being siblings.

 **Johnny:** Must be. Matt certainly struggled while Katie was out with her knee injury two years ago, I’m sure he’s glad to have her back.

 **Tara:** Speaking of which, in the kiss-and-cry now I see she has that knee wrapped up. She must have jostled it on that triple, it’s been a while since I saw any reminder of that injury.

 **Johnny:** Their team physio is sitting next to her there, Hunk Kealoha. He was the one who rehabilitated Katie after her injury and he’s been with the team ever since.

 **Tara:** Their coach Takashi Shirogane is there too, on the other side of Matt. Just waiting for the score now.

 **Johnny:** Katie and Hunk sure look cozy there.

 **Tara:** _[laughs]_ I think you’re projecting, Johnny.

 **Johnny:** _[laughs]_ Maybe a little. He looks like he gives really good hugs.

 **Tara:** I bet she’s in a bit of pain right now, having aggravated that old injury.

 **Johnny:** She didn’t show it at all on the ice.

 **Tara:** She really is a pro. Of course, she’s been like that her whole career.

 **Johnny:** _[laughs]_ Well, she’s always sort of had to keep up with her brother, right?  He’s two years older so as soon as she was sixteen they hit the ground running, so to speak.  They both say all the time they don’t want to skate at all if they’re not together.

 **Tara:**  Hard to believe it was only eight years ago they started competing together.  They skated solo in the juniors, both of them, but they weren’t remarkable until they became a pair, and then in Sochi they were a treat to watch even though they weren’t a contender for a medal.

 **Johnny:**  Last year at World’s they sort of came out of nowhere to finish fourth, so I think if Katie’s knee holds up they have a chance at the podium here.  That connection of theirs is just a delight to watch, and they know exactly where they are on their technicals.

**Announcer:** The score, please.

_[Matt jumps to his feet, pumping his fists in the air and shouting, then he sits back down and throws his arms around Katie. She’s laughing, caught in between the affections of Kealoha and her brother.  Shirogane ruffles Matt’s hair and pats Katie’s head.]_

**Johnny:**  Wow!  That is -- that’s a _tremendous_ score.

 **Tara:** That’s _five_ entire points over their previous personal best, which they set with this short program earlier this season.  Those tricks where they stepped up the difficulty really paid off.

 **Johnny:**  And it catapults them into second, just ahead of their American teammates and behind the Russians.

 **Tara:**  We still have China’s Sui and Han and the Canadians Duhamel and Radford to skate their short programs, but this looks very good for Team Holt.

 **Johnny:**  It’ll all come down to how well their competitors do, and if they’re able to perform their free skate as well as they have in practice.

 **Tara:** It’s all up to tomorrow!  After the break, we’ll be back with Sui and Han for their short program.


	2. Pairs Free Skate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Katie and Matt's free skate music is [Downton Abbey](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7ULKKJ5UpI)

_Thursday, February 15th  
_ _Pairs Free Skate_

 

**Johnny:** Taking the ice now, the American siblings we’ve been so eager to see again in this competition after their phenomenal performance yesterday: 24-year-old Katie Holt and 26-year-old Matt Holt, from San Jose, California. They’re sitting in third place after the short program.

**Tara:** They were really the breakout stars yesterday.  We expected them to be good, but I don’t think anyone expected them to be quite _that_ good.

**Johnny:**  Totally, totally.  Especially since we’d been so blown away by the North Korean team, we didn’t expect a second surprise.

_[Katie and Matt center themselves on the ice and strike their opening pose.  After a breath of expectant silence, the music begins with a bang of driving piano and strings, and they begin to skate.]_

**Johnny:** Right into their first element, side-by-side triple toe loops.

_[The scraping of the skaters’ blades over the ice is audible over the music, and the audience cheers.]_

**Johnny:**  Beautiful.

**Tara:** Flawless.  And they managed to both have one arm raised too, which increases the difficulty.  You hardly ever see that from pairs.

**Johnny:** Very impressive.  It’s suddenly making sense how they placed so well at World’s last year.

**Tara:** _[laughs]_  You’re only getting that now?

_[The skaters continue, following a short time later with a triple twist that earns them even more screaming from the audience, and both Holts are beaming at one another as they continue their program.]_

**Tara:** That is how it’s _done_.

**Johnny:** She landed on the world’s softest pile of laundry.  Just beautiful.

_[After some energetic dancing, the music slows its frantic pace, becomes gentler, and the style of the skating shifts as well.  The camera switches to a long shot, as the pair glide across the ice together, then in close again for their sequence of spins.  The arena as mostly quiet as the music resonates, the whole audience drawn into the performance.]_

**Johnny:** Oh, look at that lift.

**Tara:** Matt’s pretty slight, he doesn’t quite look like he should be so strong, but he makes this look effortless.

**Johnny:** Katie is just floating up there.

**Tara:** Beautiful.

_[Katie’s exit from the lift is complex and mirrors the change in the music, becoming more energetic again as they pick up speed.]_

**Tara:** This next element, the combination, is really something when they nail it, but Katie sometimes has problems with under-rotating on the triple at the beginning. Maybe not the wisest choice to put it in the second half, even though it’s worth ten percent more.

**Johnny:** And it looks like she might have— oh! Oh no, she popped it!

**Tara:** That was supposed to be a triple-single-double combination, but Katie stumbled landing the triple and only managed the single after.

**Johnny:** That’s going to cost them on the technical score, that’s a downgrade on the whole element for both of them, not just a hit to the grade of execution.

**Tara:** Katie looks really tense, normally she can shake this off.

**Johnny:** I hope this doesn’t mean that her injured knee is hurting her, because they have a massive throw triple lutz coming up.

**Tara:** Matt always gets her a huge amount of air on that one, and your knee really takes a beating on the landing.  

**Johnny:** That element is coming up on the other side of their step sequence. Hopefully that stumble was just nerves on her part.

_[The music continues, slowing its energy again as it moves to a different theme.]_

**Tara:** This spiral they do is so beautiful, Look at Katie’s enormous layback.

**Johnny:** Just beautiful. They don’t look forced at all, but with just a little tension in their connection to keep it interesting.

**Tara:** The music helps too.

**Johnny:** It does. Downton Abbey was a great choice for them, it’s very dramatic.

**Tara:** They do the choreography with so much emotion. They have a leg up on Russia there, if not in the technical aspects.  And this choreography is so different from their short program, which was Daft Punk. Really shows their range.

**Johnny:** Here’s their big jump, the throw triple lutz—

**Tara:** Oh!

**Johnny:** Oh no!

**Tara:** That was a big fall, she completely lost it on the landing and went right down.

**Johnny:** Wow, she really hit the boards hard.

_[The music continues, energetic and insistent, but Katie is still on the ice, against the boards.]_

**Tara:** Oh my god, I don’t think she can get up.

_[The camera cuts to Matt, who has stopped the routine and is rushing across the rink to Katie. She is half-lying on the ice, trying to hold herself up, and her entire body is shaking.  The music stops.]_

**Tara:** I think she’s seriously hurt.

**Johnny:** I don’t know if the cameras have this but their coach and their physio are running around the track over to where Katie crashed.

_[The camera is shaky in close-up on Matt, who is crouching on the ice and has an arm around his sister’s back. Their faces are not visible.]_

**Johnny:** Did you see that? Their physio just jumped right over the wall.

**Tara:** Matt seems relieved to see him.

_[The arena is quiet as everyone watches Hunk Kealoha tending to Katie; he is holding her head in both hands and speaking quietly]_

**Johnny:** What’s he doing with her face?

**Tara:** Looks like he’s checking her for a head injury.  The way she hit the boards, if she hit her head she could have a concussion.

_[Kealoha looks at Katie for a long minute, then touches her cheek gently and gets to his feet.]_

**Johnny:** Oh goodness, he just scooped her up. I hope his shoes are good on the ice.

_[The camera angle switches; we can see Matt where a door has been opened to get Katie off the ice. Kealoha moves slowly along the boards, and looks like he’s talking to Katie, though her face is hidden against him.]_

__

**Johnny:** There’s the medic but Katie’s physio seems to have the situation pretty well in hand.  At least she’s off the ice now, and it doesn’t look like there was any blood.

**Tara:**  I don’t see any.

_[Kealoha sets Katie on a bench and crouches in front of her.  Her face is red, twisted in pain and wet with tears, and she covers it with her hands.  She hiccups with sobs as Kealoha and the medic speak with her.]_

**Johnny:** Oh, he’s taking off her skate.

**Tara:** I can’t imagine she would be going back out on the ice.

_[The microphone in the arena catches the sound of Katie’s bitten-off shout of pain, and the camera cuts to Matt talking with their coach, Takashi Shirogane.  Matt shakes his head vigorously with a determined expression on his face, and then Shirogane squeezes his shoulder, then turns away and heads off at a jog.]_

**Tara:** There goes their coach towards the judges, they must be withdrawing.

**Johnny:** God, did you hear her just now?

_[The only sound in the arena is the quiet murmuring of the crowd.  The camera shows Shirogane speaking with the judges, and after a few more moments the voice comes over the public address:]_

**Announcer:** Katie Holt and Matt Holt from the United States of America have withdrawn from the competition.

_[The announcement repeats in Korean, and the crowd reacts with more murmuring, and a bit of sad applause.  The camera cuts back to Katie; Matt and Kealoha are now sitting on either side of her.  Kealoha is hugging her tightly, and her face is hidden in his shoulder as her hands clutch his jacket.  Matt is rubbing her back and she is still shaking as though she’s crying.  Both of her skates are off and the medic is crouching in front of her, until he gets up -- the camera angle changes and we see a medical team approaching with a stretcher.]_

**Johnny:** From where we’re sitting we can only really see them on camera, so we’re just getting what you are at home.

**Tara:** She seems to be resisting getting on the stretcher.

**Johnny:** I mean, I get it, Katie, but what else are you going to do?

**Tara:**  Looks like her physio is trying to talk sense into her, and their coach is back now.

**Johnny:** Oh -- oh, we just got word that Katie and Matt's parents are on their way down, they were in the audience and had to watch that live.

**Tara:** I’m glad they’re actually here, I can’t imagine having to see that on TV and be thousands of miles away.

**Johnny:** God, I know.  I can’t imagine.

_[Kealoha and Shirogane help Katie onto the stretcher, and there’s applause from the crowd._

**Johnny:** There she goes with her whole entourage.  All we can do now is wait to hear from them, see how she is once she gets medical attention.

**Tara:**  This is a really awful thing to have to follow, but we’re only halfway through tonight’s long programs.  China’s Yu and Zhang are next in this group, but we’re going to take a short break while they make sure the ice is clean, and then let the next two pairs have a quick warm-up again.

**Johnny:**  I can’t imagine how badly psyched out the other pairs are after that.  But if anyone can follow them, it’s Zhang.  He’s the steadiest skating partner I’ve ever seen in my life, and he’s seen a couple of accidents like this in his career.

**Tara:** Here’s hoping they can get past this.  We’ll keep you posted on any news from Team Holt, but right now we’re going to take a short break before we come back for the rest of the pairs free skates.


	3. Men's Free Skate

_Saturday, February 17th  
_ _Men’s Free Skate_

  


**Mike Tirico:** Good morning from Gangneung Ice Arena in PyeongChang, South Korea.  Right now the men are just starting to warm up for their long program, and in a few hours we’ll have a gold medalist to announce.  But first, I have a special guest up here in the studio: Katie Holt, half of our American pair who suffered a very painful and sudden ending to their free skate two days ago.

_[A replay shows the throw triple lutz; Katie falls to the ice and then slams into the boards.  In slow-motion we can clearly see where her head bounced off the wall.]_

**Mike (v/o):** Katie suffered another injury to her right knee, which she had previously hurt two years ago. _[The video shows Hunk Kealoha carefully lifting her into his arms.]_  After she was carried off the ice, she spent the night in the hospital, but she’s back with us now.

_[Camera returns to Mike in the studio, with Katie Holt and Hunk Kealoha, who we saw in the video.  Katie has her hair in a messy ponytail, and is wearing large glasses and a white Team USA jacket zipped all the way up to her throat, and there is a large black brace on her right knee, over her jeans.  Hunk is wearing a blue jacket over a white polo shirt.]_

**Matt:** Katie, thanks so much for joining us.  You’re looking much better than you were two days ago.

 **Katie Holt:** Yeah. _[laughs]_ I mean I’m on painkillers now, that helps a lot.

 **Mike:** And we have your physical trainer with us as well, Hunk Kealoha. What can you tell us about Katie’s injury on Thursday?

 **Hunk Kealoha:** It’s a torn ACL, like she had in 2016, but it looks like this one is more severe, from what I could see on the MRI.  But we need to have her doctor look at it the radiology when we get home.  It’s possible it was kind of dislocated too, at the beginning.  Then on top of that she’s got, you know, lots of bruising.

 **Katie:** _[nods]_ I’m black and blue all over.  Like, way more than usual.

 **Hunk:** Well, to some degree bruises are just a part of skating, so that’s kind of whatever.  But I was concerned about a concussion too, from how she hit the boards.  It turned out to be okay, she was mildly concussed but the symptoms of that were gone by the time she got to the hospital.  They kept her overnight just to be safe and she came back to the village yesterday.

 **Mike:** I do have to say, I’m a little surprised to see both of you here today.

 **Hunk:** There’s no medical reason to go home immediately.  It’s better for the knee to heal a little on its own before we travel, anyway.  Get the swelling down.

 **Katie:** Like I was going to go anywhere!  All of my friends are here, and I want to cheer them on.  Plus I couldn’t make Matt leave the Olympics just because I f----d up my knee.  Oh, s--t, I swore, I’m sorry.

 **Mike:** We’re on a delay, it’s all right.  Though Jif might rethink your endorsement deal when they see this.

 **Katie:** _[horrified]_ But, peanut butter!

 **Hunk:** _[laughs]_ You can still _eat_ peanut butter.

 **Katie:** But I like being the peanut butter girl on TV.   _[sighs]_ I’m not sure what exactly they gave me for the pain but it’s really getting the job done.

 **Mike:** So, Katie, can you tell us what happened in that fall on the throw triple lutz?

 **Katie:** Wow, um.  Yeah, skating.  That triple lutz is our huge throw, we’ve even been intending to try and turn into a quad at some point.  I get so much air on it, but that means I come down really hard, and my knee had been giving me grief since the short program and then I banged it up more earlier in the free skate.  But I was clearly not going to let it stop me, right?  The show must go on.  So I went for the jump as hard as I always do, and then I felt the knee, like, _pop_ as soon as I hit the ice. And then I just went down, there was no way I could land that.

 **Mike:** Must have been scary.

 **Katie:** To be honest I barely remember. Jumps are always scary, you sort of tune it out, I guess I whacked my head pretty good so I don’t remember that sensation in my knee being particularly alarming, and then the pain was so bad immediately that’s really the entire memory I have of the thing. _[She hesitates, thinking.]_  I do remember that I kind of knew it would happen, that my knee would be a problem.  Matt even tried to convince me to take that one down to a double, but I wouldn’t let him change the program.

 **Hunk:** I tried to convince you, too.

 **Katie:** Yeah, I really ought to listen to you.

 **Mike:** Him, but not Matt?

 **Katie:** Look, Matt has been responsible for every injury I’ve ever had. I love him because he’s my brother, but I’ve chosen to love Hunk so he ranks a little higher.

_[A beat of awkward silence. Mike and Hunk look slightly shocked, though Katie is unperturbed; she seems not to realize what she revealed.]_

**Mike:** Um...

 **Hunk:** _[clears his throat]_ Well, I thought we were keeping our relationship quiet, but I guess not.

 **Katie:** _[claps her hands over her mouth and twists to face him] [muffled]_ Oh s--t!

 **Hunk:** Now I know to expect a call from my mom later today.

 **Katie:** Oh my gosh. _[affects a voice and holds her hand up to her face like a telephone]_ Hunk! You’re a celebrity!

 **Hunk:** _[laughs]_ Just like she did when she saw me jump out onto the ice to rescue you.

 **Mike:** That all makes sense now, actually. Not that we didn’t expect you to go help, but your urgency was exceptional.

 **Hunk:** Wow, yeah. You know, I didn’t even think when I did that. I just saw her hit the ice and I panicked, I was on autopilot.

 **Katie:** _[Sets her hand on his knee and beams at him]_  My hero.

**Hunk:** What was I gonna do, right?  She was definitely badly hurt, that was a hell of a fall. I was terrified.

 **Mike:** Was it as bad as you’d feared?

 **Hunk:** Well, no, nothing ever is.

 **Katie:** His fears are awfully creative.

 **Hunk:** I was afraid she had a head injury.  And I mean, she did have a concussion, but it wasn’t serious.

 **Mike:** So this knee injury, though, what does that mean for your career?

 **Katie:** _[grimaces]_ I don’t know. Mom was the first one to use the words “career-ending” but I’m not ready to admit to that.

 **Hunk:** It’s going to be a long recovery. She’ll get back out on the ice again, but we don’t know when, or if she’ll be able to do it at this level. We’ll have a better sense of things once we get home and she sees her surgeon.

 **Katie:** I don’t want this to be the end for me.  I love skating, I’ll be back, the question is just when and how.  And like, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to skate at the same level as Matt when I’m done with this, but…. _[She sighs and bites her lip.]_ Honestly, I’m really upset that we weren’t able to finish. I fought to keep the triple because we needed the points to have a chance at a medal, and now it doesn’t matter, we don’t get a score at all.  It would have -- it would have been _unbelievable_ to win an Olympic medal with my brother.  We’ve been together our whole lives, we wanted this so much, and it would suck so bad for our career to end on _this._

_[Hunk wraps his arm around her shoulders, squeezing gently.]_

**Mike:** What we got to see of the program was absolutely stellar.

 **Katie:** Thanks.   _[She glances at Hunk, who gives her a sad smile and rubs her shoulder.]_  Except for my knee being a b---h it felt amazing, like we’ve never gelled quite that well and we just … I really love this music, you know?  Me and Matt watch Downton Abbey to unwind, it’s our guilty pleasure, and the music is just so gorgeous.  And the show has all these family themes, it’s messed up and whatever but that’s at the center of everything and we really wanted to incorporate that into a program.  We were lucky that Shiro is a total pushover when me and Matt both want something, he didn’t fight us at all.

 **Hunk:** He knows better than to try to resist when you’ve got your hearts set on something.  You’re formidable.

 **Katie:** _[laughs]_  That’s wise of him.

 **Mike:** It definitely sounds like you’re not ready to quit yet.

 **Katie:** I’m really not.  This is a setback, but I’ve recovered from a torn ACL before, and if anyone can get me through that, it’s this guy.   _[She pats Hunk’s knee, and he smiles at her.]_  Although, if the physical therapy is as painful as last time, we might not still be dating at the end.

 **Hunk:** _[laughs]_ Are we actually dating now?  I don’t remember the last time we went on a date, you’re always working.

 **Katie:** _[smiling and blushing]_ Anyway, I’m determined to keep skating.  And even though Matt says that my health is the most important thing, I know he doesn’t want us to be done either.  We can have both.

 **Mike:** Do you think we might see you in Beijing in 2022?

 **Katie:** _[laughs]_ Never say never.

 **Hunk:** Won’t you be old by then?  You’ll be, like, thirty.

 **Katie:** I won’t be thirty, I’ll only be twenty-eight.  That’s not too old for Adam Rippon, and it’s not too old for me.  Matt will be thirty, go make fun of him.  And anyway, Aljona [Savchenko] is thirty-four and she absolutely destroyed it.

 **Hunk:** Really, you think you’re as hardcore as Aljona?

 **Katie:** _[rolls her eyes]_ I mean … no.  But a girl can dream.   _[leans forward, stage-whispering]_ I love you, Aljona!

 **Mike:** Well, I certainly do hope that we get to see more of you and Matt in four years.

 **Katie:**  Thanks, I hope so too.  Except for the injury this has been amazing, even more so than Sochi was.   _[She gives the camera a double thumbs-up.]_  Beijing 2022!

 **Mike:** _[to camera]_  There we have it, Katie Holt determined to come back from her injury and skate for us again in four years.  Now back down to Tara and Johnny for the first group of the men’s free skate.

**Author's Note:**

> I know very little about figure skating, and all errors are my own.
> 
> Images are also on [Tumblr](https://ladymac111-draws.tumblr.com/post/170987665647/human-after-all-johnny-taking-the-ice-next-we).


End file.
